Konjakutei Aizuwakamatsu

... spent a good 15 minutes sitting outside a Pachinko parlor (where a high pitched girl's voice entreating customers almost drove me insane)--both maps from the office show the same city but are printed in two different orientations (portrait vs. landscape) and I had so much time trying to get them squared up. But I got a good start at a more 'traditional' restaurant, which appropriately doubles as an omiyage (souvenir) shop. The specialty here is dengaku, which are skewered ...

Monday 28th April Alison: On Monday we headed up into the hills above Kyoto to Kurama for our experience of a traditional Ryokan. In order to get there we had to catch the JR train one station to connect with the Keihan train company's train which connected us with the Eizan train company's train which took us up to Kurama - all these different train companies in one city is amazing, and of course each one has separate ticketing ...

... over $160 just for tolls and gas (costs less than in Europe, but far more than in the US) for the day. We had fun getting gas at a "typical" gas station, where the attendant runs out, shouting and directing you to the pump, and then when you're ready to leave, he stops traffic and directs you back out onto the road. Too funny! Sorry I didn't get any pictures. Aizu ...

... the parents lounging around the onsen (hot spring) just taking it all in and the kids running havoc it is v funny. On the way out I saw two young monkies fighting, I had to take a video of a monkey fight...... but as I got a little bit closer one of the monkies jumped on me and turned the camera off ........ I couldn't stop laughing. And then the snow started ....... we headed for Tokyo

Today we arose around 9 to go to the historic Word Heritage site of Nikko, about 2 hours north of Tokyo. We bought the World Heritage Pass, which I would recommend. For about $35 per person, you get round trip train tickets from Asakusa station in Tokyo, entrance to three Temples in Nikko, and limited use of the Nikko bus system. We didn't get up until about 8:30 so by the time we got up to Asakusa we wouldn't get to Nikko until 2:30. The ...

... played a weird coin drop game, with no clear cut point and objective. But you are given bonus rounds and coins come shooting out of the machine. It was confusing and SO MUCH FUN. We played for quite a bit on our free coins. Then got a free go at one of the claw machines that win little stuffed animals... all of us lost :( (Especially Jason, since Amy and I used the games up before realizing he didn't get his go... wah-wah. We'll make it up to you ...

So we get to one of our first relaxing places from the outside bandai-atami doesnt look that nice, probably due to its heyday being 15 years ago! The hotel we stayed at was called Kirakuya Inn not much from the outside but once inside it was really nice, it has 2 public onsens for men and women with many different baths and a sauna, and two private baths on the top floor observing the mountains surounding bandai. It was really nice, Michelle`s bag broke (also her hair drier blew up, we ...

... bookmark (SHIORI). We apologised for the presents being **** (too many nice people and not enough souvenirs to go around - next time I'm bringing a crate load), but they said it was our heart that was appreciated. They gave us limited edition ¥500 coins from the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics in return. Yamaguchi-san continued to say that we were lucky and that we were some of the best guests he'd had. BTW, Yamaguchi-san doesn't like vegetarians either because they make things difficult ...

... a ******. When he said that he wanted to invite the 3 of us to his house for dinner, adding that his wife was KOWAII (scary), I exclaimed MAJIDE? (a crude form meaning something like 'Are you for real?'). In Japan, that's probably the last thing you'd say to a headmaster that is bestowing you the honour of a meal at his house (even if his wife is scary) - so that comment stirred up a bit of a reaction (a good one it seemed, since I was drunk and so were they, plus I had the ...

... sake (or the ones you can buy at a vending machine or convenience store) are either watered down or have synthetic alcohols added. To prove his point, Yamaguchi-san gave us some of the "normal" sake (perhaps a notch above the ONE CUP SAKE that Mike had frequently consumed on long train journeys) and it tasted **** after the Jun Mai Shu. Then he gave us a huge bottle of NIGORI ZAKE, the same sake as the Jun Mai Shu except it was brewed the traditional way and hadn't been ...